Sink, Swim, Sink
by MaliceIncorporated
Summary: Or "Archangelfish Suck", a story about a merman with the malicious malady of malcontent, and an innocent human girl who gets pulled into it.
1. Chapter 1

A little story about some pretty tails and malady of malcontent.

"I must be a mermaid, Ringo. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living." - Anais Nin

* * *

"I found another seashell!" A small chubby hand thrusts a sandy shell up into the air and waves it around with gleeful abandon. The motion combined with the light breeze knocks some of the sand back down to the beach. "I wanna keep this one too, okay?"

There's no answer to the young child's words, but she doesn't seem to notice or even care. The breeze tosses her red-blonde hair around, perpetuating its disheveled appearance. The shell that the 4 year old had picked up disappears into a small cloth bag, and then she's running back down towards the edge of the ocean to find more shells. Up on the hill her father and older brother keep a careful watch; she's too young to understand that they aren't at the beach for just a fun day in the sun.

"Collect all the shells you can carry, Nat. I'll help you make a necklace out of them that you can put on the headstone."

Natalie doesn't hear her father; she's found another shell right at the edge of the water that she just _has_ to have. When she goes to grab it though, she sees a boy in the water. He stares at her from the shallows, wet black hair stuck to his scalp with the bangs falling in his face. His bangs aren't long enough to hide his bright yellow eyes, and that's what entrances Natalie the most. They stare at each other for a few minutes, and then the boy dives back under the water.

All she sees is a flash of a red fish tail before he's gone from her childhood. As fate would have it though, this is not the last time Natalie will meet that yellow-eyed boy with the red tail.

(there's a time/scene skip here but it's not letting me put a fucking line)

Down below the surface of the water, deep deep down into the depths of the ocean far beyond the diving range of humans, lies a sprawling city carved into the living coral and stone. Fish swim over paved streets, dart in and out of gardens of seaweed, and smack into the invisible barriers of windows in small stone houses. It's a scene out of a story book, this peaceful sunken city, decorated brightly with coral, scales, and seashells of all colours.

Worked right into the side of an underwater cliff is a large and glorious castle, carved and inlaid with gems and shells. It glows with its own magic, bright and shimmering in the gloomy dark water. Large round orbs, overgrown pearls the size of basketballs, stand atop stone pillars all around the metropolis and give off a bright light, illuminating the streets.

No human can reach these depths, but this place is far from deserted. There's a flash of bright red as a young boy hastily dives down towards the castle, crimson tail catching the light of the pearls and giving its own glow. He doesn't stop until he's returned to his room, the gills on his ribs flared wide open as he gulps in breaths.

"Were you at the surface?" A round face, framed by sandy brown hair, pokes around the door. Bright blue eyes are narrowed accusingly at the red-tailed merboy. "That's not allowed, Luce. You're going to get in trouble!"

A shell is thrown haphazardly at the new merboy's face. "Oh let go of my fins, Michael. No one saw me."

Michael swims further into the room, still giving his brother an accusatory look. His tail is the same intense blue as his eyes, the longer and narrower fins seeming to refract any light that hits them. "I saw you! I should tell Dad and have you thrown out. You can't go where the humans are."

"Who said anything about humans?" Lucifer thinks back to the little human girl who saw him in the water. She hadn't seemed dangerous. "Humans are stupid."

"You totally went to see the humans again."

"I did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Shut UP!" A larger merboy with dark red-brown hair, dark skin and a tail that looks like it's carved out of a million pieces of emerald, shoulders his way into the room. "I can hear you arguing across the entire floor," He stares between Lucifer and Michael with a tired expression. "Lucifer, did you go to the surface?"

Lucifer glares his hardest, but it wavers under Gabriel's stare. "No, I was just going for a swim."

"He's LYING, GABR-" Michael is cut off by a single gesture of Gabriel's hand.

"Lucifer, you know we are forbidden from going to the surface. The land is for the humans and the air-breathing beasts. The seas belong to us." Gabriel's tone is calm with a hint of exasperation, like he's had this conversation a thousand times.

"I know, I didn't go to the surface!" Lucifer lies, and ignores Michael sticking his tongue out at him. When Gabriel turns to stare at Michael, Lucifer takes this chance to stick _his_ tongue out.

Gabriel sighs. "Honestly, you two." He reaches out and grabs both of his brothers by the shoulder, and then smacks their heads together. "Smarten up, both of you. Stop fighting. Come now, Raphael has made dinner." He steers both of them out of Lucifer's room and down the hall, but he can't help but worry.

What will happen if his brothers can't learn to get along?


	2. Chapter 2

"I worry for our brothers," Gabriel's words are quiet as he swims alongside another of his brothers in the palace garden. All kinds of beautiful underwater plants blossom in the sand, and the two are careful not to disturb the loose white sand beneath their fins. He's slightly behind his brother, and he watches the rhythmic movements of Raphael's deep purple tail; it's calming to his anxieties.

Raphael doesn't say anything for a while. "I do as well. I fear the worst is going to happen with Lucifer. All we can do is encourage him to stay on the path our Father laid out for us. Where is he now?"

"I hope not with Michael. Lately they've done nothing but fight. Are we going to find him?" Gabriel flicks his tail harder to keep up with Raphael, not wanting to be left too far behind.

-this is scene change, i hate fanfiction dot net-

"Wow, Lucifer! Look at this one!" A younger merboy with a dark red tail doesn't care about whipping up the sand from the sea floor, as he brings up a cracked skull towards Lucifer. He looks so excited, pale green eyes wide and mouth split in a grin. The skull is badly cracked, but it's still distinctly human.

"Eh?" Luce turns around to take the object, spinning it slowly in his webbed hands. "This is a pretty bad specimen, Festus. Is this all you could find?" He looks bored as he tosses it back to the smaller boy.

Felix fumbles the skull and ends up dropping it into the swirling sand below him. "There's a fresh wreck-" His words are cut off when Luce darts closer and grabs his face with both hands, leaning in close.

"Fresh wreck, why didn't you tell me sooner? Show me!" There's finally a spark of real interest in Lucifer's bright golden eyes. He's larger and faster than his companion, and it's almost painful having to slow down so that Felix can show him to the wrecked human ship.

Across a field of seaweed, through a rocky tunnel and over a small hill - and there it is. It's a merchant ship, or was. It's easy to assume that the reason why it now lies at the bottom of the ocean is from the main mast that's snapped in half and pierced through the hull when it fell, probably from lightning based on the burn marks. Lucifer wastes no time swimming closer to get a really good idea of how the humans used it.

"It's kind of spooky…" Felix murmurs, swimming around the outside of the vessel. "I bet there's tons of sharks waiting for the rotten bodies to come out. What do you think, Luce? … Luce? Lucifer!?" He spins around rapidly a few times, panicked that he can't see Lucifer anymore.

A flash of red in one of the windows calms him, and he realizes that the other merboy went inside the ship. Felix follows him, albeit nervously. After finding the door to the lower deck, Felix is shocked to see Lucifer tugging the shirt and jewelry off of a bloated corpse. "What are you doing?"

"I just want to see how it fits," Lucifer puzzles over the waterlogged flannel shirt. He uses his sharp nails to rip a stripe down the back of the shirt, so that he can fit it around his dorsal fin. A few bracelets make their way onto his arms. "How do I look?"

Lucifer looks up in time to see Michael's shocked face. "_LUCIFER!_ Get that stuff off right now!" He darts forward, reaching for the shirt that Lucifer has on.

_**RIP!**_

The heavy flannel rips in half thanks to the cut that Lucifer already had to make. He recoils, letting the soggy cloth fall off his frame. "What the hell, Michael? It's not hurting anyone!"

"It isn't right! Why are you so interested in the humans, why do you have to do this? You know it's not what our Dad would want! You're forsaking all of us!" Michael's blue eyes are wide, and Felix has disappeared. No one wants to get in the middle of one of the legendary fights between Michael and Lucifer.

"Who cares what Dad wants? I'm allowed to be whatever I want, and I want to learn more about them! Why is that so wrong?" Lucifer balls his hands into fists, tail movements stiff and all the spiny fins along his tail raised upright. Michael matches the physical show of aggression, fins spread wide.

Michael makes the first move, lunging at Lucifer once more to try and pull the bracelets off his wrists. Lucifer misconstrues it as an actual attack, and spins around to slam his tail into Michael's side. Not expecting it, Michael is knocked down to the floor of the ship. He doesn't just lie down though; he grabs Lucifer's tail and drags him down too, until they've got their tails wrapped around each other and are just hitting and scratching at any part of the other they can reach.

They're pulled apart by two sets of hands; Gabriel grabbing Michael and Raphael grabbing Lucifer. Both continue to twist and thrash despite their injuries, determined to get at each other.

"ENOUGH!" Raphael roars, and it's finally what gets the two to stop. "Brothers, you must stop this fighting before one of you kills the other. Michael, it was wrong for you to follow Lucifer here," He hits Lucifer upside the head when the dark-haired boy sticks his tongue out at Michael. "And Lucifer, it was wrong for you to have come here at all. I want you to stay in the castle for a few days, and you are not allowed to leave. Do you understand?"

Lucifer mumbles a very quiet "Understood."

"Michael, you are to leave Lucifer alone for a few days. I don't even want you two in the same room. Both of you need to stop this foolishness. Am I understood?"

Michael sighs and looks down at the floor. "Understood."

"Let's go home then, so I can treat your injuries. I need to thank Festus for finding us in time to stop this fight." With a swish of his dark purple tail, Raphael leads the three out of the shipwreck. Lucifer spies Felix hiding near the broken mast, watching them go with wide eyes.

He waits until they're out of sight, before darting back into the ship to grab the bracelets that had fallen off of Lucifer, so that he can hide them for him to get later.


	3. Chapter 3

A volcanic vent that opens into the ocean floor is a great source of amusement. The boiling hot water bothers most, and that's precisely why Lucifer is lounging near it. Between him and the dark smoke coming from the vent, is an innocent crab.

An innocent crab repeatedly being poked with the end of a coral spear, constantly forcing it closer and closer to the source of the intense heat. Every attempt it makes to escape, there's a spearhead blocking its path. Despite the heat beginning to turn his skin red, Lucifer smirks as he nudges the crab towards imminent death.

A small burst of sand somewhere to Lucifer's right alerts him that he has company. When he sees the sandy blonde hair and pale green tail, he immediately loses interest and goes back to tormenting the crab. The other merman lazily swims his way. He watches Lucifer with tired grey-green eyes. "What exactly are you trying to accomplish here?"

"I was hoping it would sing," Lucifer remarks dryly, giving the crab another hard shove towards the smoking vent. "Why did you follow me all the way out here, Sarenael?" He side-eyes the younger merman, one dark eyebrow raised.

Sarenael draws back from the heat of his stare. "I thought you'd want to be informed that Michael and Raphael have left to help a village deal with a rampaging squid."

Lucifer continues to stare him down, trying to decide if he's lying. Sarenael's expression doesn't change. "I… see. Thank you for telling me this. Why is it your business whether or not I know where my brothers are?"

"I just want you to leave that damn crab alone." Sarenael moves in a flash, thrusting his shimmering tail fin towards the heat vent and the crab; the motion kicks up sand and moves the water in such a way that the crab goes tumbling safely away from the heat.

"Quit messin' with my fun. Get the fuck out of here," Lucifer snaps, holding the spear menacingly. The younger merman says nothing, just takes off back towards the city.

Lucifer watches him go, then turns to watch the crab scuttle under a rock. But with the knowledge that two of his brothers are out of the city and probably out of the general area, he turns his gaze up. Towards the distant surface.

He ascends.

-hey look another scene change-

"Wooooow, I haven't been to this beach in forever!" Sand is kicked up everywhere as an excited teenager runs across a beach.

"Yeah? I'd have thought you'd come here all the time," Natalie's good friend Michael follows behind the girl at a much lazier pace, with his hands shoved in the pockets of his shorts. He raises an eyebrow when Nat just falls down in the sand on her back. "Did you trip?"

"No, I just really love this beach! Look how clear the clouds are, and the sky is so blue," Her green eyes sparkle as she stares up at the fluffy clouds. "Put the blanket down right here Mike, this is a good spot. Riiiiight here."

He waits until she rolls out of the way, then lays the blanket down. She immediately rolls onto it and gets sand all over it. "Well what was the point of tha-ahaaaa…." Michael's face goes an interesting shade of red, and he turns his face quickly when Nat pulls off her tank top and wiggles out of her shorts, revealing an orange bikini.

"Mike? You alright?" He turns to look at her. "Ah, Mike, your nose is bleeding…"

"Whatever! Haha! This is a beautiful summer day, lets go swimming!" He laughs to cover his embarrassment, long and loud. Nat just shrugs and goes to dive in the water, but stops very suddenly at the edge of the water. "Nat?"

She's staring vacantly out into the water. "He's here again. The boy in the water."

"What? I didn't hear that, you mumbled," Michael hops on one foot to get his shorts off, shirt already discarded. His swim trunks are blue and white floral.

"There's a guy in the water with yellow eyes. He was here when I was a kid too."

Michael comes up beside her and looks out, but doesn't see anything. "Nat there's no one there, come on. Let's go swimming!"

He doesn't wait any longer, and jumps into the ocean. A few minutes later, Natalie follows him.

The two friends splash around, and once or twice they try to dunk the other under the water. Every time she goes under, Natalie keeps her eyes closed tightly, scared to see that yellow-eyed man. Michael on the other hand keeps his eyes open.

When Nat returns to the blanket to catch some sun, Michael stays in the water. "Hey, Nat, I think I felt a fish swim against my leg!" He swims in a slow circle, peering into the water to try and see where the fish had disappeared to.

A hand grabs his ankle and pulls him under the water too fast for him even cry for help.


	4. Chapter 4

He swallows water and coughs, limbs thrashing even as he's tugged deeper down into the ocean. The hand around his ankle is cold, with sharp claws digging into his skin, but he can't get a good look at what it is because he's drowning.

There's a burst of noise above him, and Natalie has his wrist. He's the rope between two dogs, and one of these bitches really needs to let go. Preferably the one pulling him down. Michael is dizzy, his struggling slowing down, and he's praying to every god that could possibly be listening right now that this isn't going to be his death day. This was supposed to be a fun beach date with his best friend.

Michael closes his eyes, and it's just in time to not see a blue and skin-coloured monster rise up from the depths with glowing blue eyes and some kind of spear made of bone. The monster rams into the creature holding onto his foot, and then Nat is pulling him up to the surface and tugging him towards the beach.

It takes him a while to realize she's speaking to him, shaking him, and then she's kissing him? No, wait. She's blowing air into his mouth. "MICHAEL! MICHAEL WAKE UP, PLEASE!" She's panicking, and forgets how exactly to properly help him in this situation. It takes her breaking down and just flopping on his stomach in desperation to bring the water up, and then Michael rolls onto his side to cough up all the water he inhaled. He can't even finish that, because Natalie is hugging him tightly and sobbing into his shoulder.

"Oh god I was so scared, I saw your head go under and I know you're a much better swimmer than that and then I saw the yellow-eyed boy grinning up at me, and he had a tail! Michael he had a fish tail! And then that other one came out of nowhere and attacked him and I'm just so glad you're alive!" She's hysterical. Michael weakly wraps an arm around her and pats her back.

"It's okay Nat. You're right, I'm alive, and I'm never going into the ocean ever again."

She clings to him a little longer, before looking out at the ocean. "What… even were they? Mermaids?"

- (scene skip) -

Lucifer has never seen his brother so livid. The two mermen square off in the water just off the shore, and Lucifer would be lying if he said he wasn't a little intimidated. Michael's got a fire in his eyes that he's never seen before, and all of his fins are flared. Likewise, Lucifer has taken up a fighting stance, though he doesn't have any kind of weapon.

"Don't lie to me this time, brother. What were you doing?"

"This is an all new level of stupid, even for you Mikey. I was doing exactly what it looked like. I was drowning that human," Lucifer sneers, lips curling to show his fangs. He doesn't take his yellow eyes off of Michael, carefully calculating every little movement of the other merman.

Michael's grip on the spear tightens, his tail flicking violently in the water. "You revealed yourself to humans. You tried to kill a human. What's your deal? Why can't you just behave like the rest of us!? You're the only one who thinks like this!"

"Why should we hide in the water? We deal with their messes all the time, it's time to turn the tides."

"I feel like I don't know who you are anymore, Lucifer! You've gone mad!" Michael points the spear at Lucifer. "It's time for someone to put an end to your insanity, brother. I'm so sorry that it's come to this."

Lucifer's eyes widen, just a smidge, at Michael's words. When Michael lunges, Lucifer barely ducks to the side in time to avoid the barbed spearhead. His tail comes up quickly to try and knock the other off course. The butt of the spear hits the side of his head, and his claws nick the edges of Michael's gills.

They know how the other fights; they've fought together as brothers and comrades against sharks and other threats that face their people all the time. They've fought against each other time and time again, both having very dominant personalities that clash. Red and blue scales flash in the light coming through the surface of the water, occasionally obscured by the sand that their thrashing disturbs. Before long, red scales aren't the only cause of red in the water. Michael's spear is abandoned in favour of his naturally sharp claws and teeth, as their battle gets more and more feral as it goes.

Michael gets his claws in Lucifer's tail, and he rips long gashes in the thick fin. Lucifer bites down on one of Michael's arm fins and viciously shakes his head until the part in his mouth is no longer attached. There's so much blood in the water that sharks are coming to investigate, despite how close to the shallow water they are.

A powerful smack of Michael's tail against Lucifer's head finally smashes the yellow eyed merman down to the ocean floor. He gazes up at his brother, vision blurry.

"You needed to be stopped Lucifer. This is not the way our kind are meant to live. We do not interfere or show ourselves to humans, it is forbidden! For your crimes against our race, you are to be executed!" Michael dives.

While he was talking, Lucifer noticed the spear half-buried in the sand. He grabs it as Michael dives.

"Michael, Lucifer, wait!" Having watched from a patch of seaweed, Gabriel darts out now to try and stop his brothers from killing each other. The sun catches off his green tail, scattering a variety of shades of green light through the rough waters. He's so desperate to stop Michael from killing Lucifer, that he doesn't have a chance to stop Lucifer from grabbing the spear.

Gabriel stops and stares down at where the spearhead pierces through him, caught directly between Lucifer and Michael. "My… brothers…"

Michael stares at him with wide, shocked eyes. "Gabriel! Where did you come from, when did you follow me?" His gaze lowers to the blood spearhead. "No.." Gently, very gently, Michael pulls Gabriel into his arms and lowers them both to the ocean floor, cradling his older brother to his chest.

"I just… I just wanted you to stop fighting, brothers shouldn't…" Gabriel coughs and grimaces, and Michael just shushes him and pets his hair. By the time Gabriel's pained gasps stop and it's only the air around them causing his gills to move, Michael's sobbing.

Lucifer is nowhere to be found.

"_LUCIFER_!" Michael's voice carries all the rage of a tsunami, fins bristling even as he holds his dead brother. "LUCIFER IF IT'S THE LAST THING I EVER DO, I'LL KILL YOU FOR THIS! For Gabriel…"


	5. Chapter 5

Gabriel's funeral is attended by the entire city, and some merfolk from neighbouring towns and villages. The place where he's buried is marked by a large green turtle shell, and decorated with all kinds of green shells and stones. The atmosphere is solemn, and even the ever-present current seems slow. One by one the merfolk who came to pay their respects to the fallen prince turn and leave quietly, until only Michael, Raphael, and Uriel remain.

The three brothers hold each other's hands, tails moving in unison. Michael has a cold look in his bright eyes, Raphael looks absolutely devastated, and the light in Uriel's eyes has gone out.

"Lucifer will pay," Michael says quietly. "Word's been sent out that he's banished from every community across the oceans. He's to be captured alive and brought to us if seen, so that we can punish him."

Uriel sobs, and finally just crumbles to the sand. Raphael lays beside him, while Michael remains upright and stoic.

Near an overhanging rock is a pink-tailed mermaid with long red-brown hair. She hasn't moved since Gabriel was lowered into the grave, and her bright eyes are filled with so much pain.

Lucifer will pay.

- - (wooh scene skip) - -

The old wreckage of the wooden ship lies partially buried in the sand now, half rotting and half preserved from the salt in the water and covered in algae and shellfish. The door to the lower deck is busted and forced shut by wads of seaweed. The corpses have long since been removed and fed to sharks. One of the rooms in the very belly of the boat has been mostly cleared, the window covered by sand and wood so nothing within it can be seen.

Lucifer lounges up against one wall, his back on the floor of the room and his tail going up the wall. Idly he tosses a ring up, and then catches it before it floats down onto his face. Every so often in his boredom he'll intentionally miss so that the corroded metal ring smacks his forehead or nose.

There's a knock on the side of the wreck; two quick knocks and the thunk of a tail slapping against the wood. Lucifer rolls over and pulls himself along the floor, out of the room he's in and down the small hallway to the next room over. A burlap sack is pulled out of the porthole and the glass shoved aside, and then Felix's head pops into view.

"Anthea is the only one still at the funeral. I wouldn't go near it while she's there though. Michael told _everyone_ what you did, Luce. There really isn't anywhere safe you can go," Felix frowns deeply at him, then passes a small seaweed net full of shrimp through the window.

Lucifer takes the shrimp with a bored expression. "I know someone who can hide - what do you mean us?"

"I'm going with you!" Felix grins wide, giving an excited wiggle like the overgrown guppy he is. An overgrown guppy on a permanent sugar high.

"No you're not. I've only got one way to get out of this shit, and you ain't going."

"Let me go with you!"

"No."

"Please!"

"No."

"Please let me go with you!"

"No."

"Lucifer please!"

"Felix, no."

"Why not!?"

"Sarenael probably can't sneak us both. He should be here soon actually," Lucifer pops a shrimp into his mouth, crunching loudly. He still maintains a bored expression.

Felix pouts. "But… I wanna go with you. You're so cool Lucifer! You stand up to Michael and you don't care what anybody thinks of you or what you do, you do whatever you want and that's awesome!"

Lucifer pops another shrimp into his mouth and keeps up the bored expression. After he swallows, he leans in really close to Felix's face. "...No."

He whines and slides down the side of the ship. "Lucifeeeeer whhhyyyyyyy….."

Lucifer turns away from the window and leans up against the wall of the ship. "Ask Sarenael when he gets here if you can go then, I don't care. I thought you'd want to stay with Anthea."

"I do but I want to go with you too!"

"You should probably stay with Anthea you know. She just lost her secret lover, she's going to need you more than I'll need you," He inspects his claws.

Felix flicks his tail and floats back up to the window. "So you're not denying that you'll need me?" He sticks his face into the window and Lucifer pushes his face back out.

"I ain't saying anything, smallfry. Is that Sarenael?" He removes his hand from Felix's face and points to a figure swimming towards them, low to the ground. Felix squints. Lucifer ducks down a little more out of view of the window.

Sarenael darts in and out of seaweed as he makes his way towards the ship. With him is a large woven bag full of carefully wrapped shells. He checks over his shoulder several times to make sure he's not being followed, before heading over to where Felix is. Felix moves up, intending to show Sarenael how to get in, but the green-tailed merman just slides through the open window.

"How the fuck are you that skinny?" Felix whines and moves back to the window and tries the same thing, but his shoulders are just a touch too broad to fit.

"I'm half your age," Sarenael comments before moving to follow Lucifer into the room that's more hidden. Felix has to go the long way to get inside.

"Now, the only way I can get you to the hidden grotto is to disguise who you are. You've got a choice of colours here Luce. Blue, green, pink, yellow…" Sarenael empties out the bag onto the floor, and the various shells are marked with some kind of water-resistant ink.

Lucifer picks up one of the blue shells. "I guess blue. What about my hair?"

"I can't do anything about your hair, but black isn't super uncommon. It's more important to disguise your tail, that's much more obvious…" Sarenael grabs a shell with no marking on it, which contains an off-white goop.

Felix comes to the room, looking at the various shells in wonder. "Can I go too Sarenael?"

The blonde merboy shrugs. "I don't think I'd have to disguise your tail, you didn't kill Gabriel. I don't care if you come," He takes Lucifer's tail and begins to apply the goop in a thin layer to his fin. It makes Lucifer twitch and growl and try to pull away, but Sarenael's grip is tight. "This will keep the ink attached to your scales, or else moving will wash it off. Don't be a guppy."

Felix tries not to laugh at the grumpy face Lucifer puts on. The entire process takes a while, and Lucifer feels uncomfortable the entire time. Especially when Sarenael gets closer to his cloaca; he actually squeaks and pulls right away, which makes the other two laugh. He hits Sarenael's hands every time he tries to get to that area, until eventually Sarenael just passes over the shell of goop and lets Lucifer put it on himself.

The entire awkward process is repeated with a few different shades of blue.

When they're all finished up, Lucifer has a deep blue tail and fins, Sarenael's had his wrists wrapped together with seaweed to stop him from touching Lucifer's tail anymore, and Felix has fallen asleep in the corner of the room.

Sarenael and Lucifer leave while Felix sleeps; they both agree that it's better if he doesn't come with them.


	6. Chapter 6

Lucifer keeps close to Sarenael's side as they swim away from the city, trying not to argue about the pace. If they go too fast, it'll look suspicious, like they're fleeing from something. If they go any slower though Lucifer might just have to deal with looking suspicious, because he's going to tear off Sarenael's fins.

"Really, we could go a little faster."

"Look over here, do you see how the baby crabs are coming to investigate us? It's because you're a little bitch."

Lucifer grabs Sarenael's tail fin, claws digging into the thin membrane. The smaller merman hisses in pain. "Call me a bitch again and there won't be enough of your body remaining for a funeral," Lucifer snarls. His rage lights up several bioluminescent scales along his fins. He doesn't let go of the fin until Sarenael nods quickly to show that he understands. "Remember that."

Once he lets go, Sarenael takes a second to inspect the damage done to his tail fin before heading off again. This time he stays quiet, and picks up the pace just a little bit. Just enough to keep Lucifer happy. They pass over and down three small sandy hills before Sarenael cuts into a deep ravine. An octopus turns red and swooshes away from their intrusion.

"The fuck are you taking me, kid?" Lucifer mutters under his breath, giving the high rocky walls around them a wary glance. This smells like an ambush. "Are you working for my brothers?"

He glances over his shoulder. "Shut up. Follow close."

Of course this pisses Lucifer off even more, but he recognizes that this probably isn't the smartest place for a discussion. The rocks on the ravine walls are loose, and one wrong move could cause an avalanche. So as much as he doesn't want to, Lucifer follows close behind Sarenael.

They hear it before they see it; the single clink of rock hitting rock. Sarenael freezes in place, and slowly turns his head to look behind them. Lucifer doesn't give him a chance to actually look though; he shoves against the green-tailed boy. "MOVE!" First one rock, then three, then six. The water vibrates with the sound of rocks ricocheting off of each other and off of the ravine walls, some of them narrowly missing soft merfolk flesh. Lucifer keeps shoving Sarenael ahead, or tugging him out of the way of something that would gladly crush him. Little fish dart around them, also trying to get out of the landslide.

Sarenael abruptly grabs Lucifer's arm and tugs him into a narrow opening in the side of the wall to their left, both of them barely clearing the entrance before large rocks fall into it and block the way out. They gasp for breath, gills flared wide to draw as much oxygen out of the water as possible. Both have a handful of shallow scratches from getting hit by rocks, but thanks to Lucifer's speed they avoided any serious injuries. Once they've calmed down from the excitement, Sarenael activates the bioluminescent spots along his arms and tail. When Lucifer does the same, it's easier for them to navigate the narrow tunnel.

"You could've killed us, taking that path. Why the fuck did you do that?" Lucifer growls out, but quietly, because he doesn't want a cave-in.

Sarenael's face colours a little, and he doesn't meet Lucifer's eyes. "I uh. I've only come here twice before, and I didn't know where exactly the cave entrance was. I figured if we went through the ravine instead of over it, I'd be able to spot it easier."

"You've got to be pulling my fins. You don't know where we're going? You told me you could _safely _ get me out of my brothers' searching gazes," Lucifer tries hard not to look murderous. He fails.

"I know where we're going! This is a shortcut. If we follow this tunnel, it should open up in a seaweed forest, and beyond that is a little village at the edge of a cliff. And at the base of the cliff is another secret tunnel, and through that one is your safe area. Only a handful of merfolk know about it," Sarenael squeezes through a narrow opening, then turns around to help Lucifer shove a rock aside so that he can fit through.

"Okay, ghr, how did you learn about this 'secret safe area'? And who else knows about it?" The rock is stubborn, but with their combined effort they get it moved just enough that Lucifer can squeeze through it. The tunnel was clearly not made for someone of his broad-shouldered stature.

The other male is quiet for a while as they swim. "My mom showed it to me when I was just a guppy. There used to be a dolphin trapped in it, and she heard it crying through the tunnel, so she'd go and take care of it until it passed. After that, she took me there all the time because it was peaceful and away from everyone else."

"I didn't really need to know about that, but alright then. As long as my brothers won't find me."

Lucifer didn't realize how much he hates enclosed spaces until the end of the tunnel is in sight, and he shoves Sarenael into the wall in order to get past him. The seaweed patch is beautiful to him, because it's so open and wide and isn't a narrow tunnel through rock. He doesn't dare swim above it though, because he still doesn't know where his brothers are, or if they're looking for him way out here.

Sarenael tugs on his tail to get his attention, then begins leading him towards the little village. It's an old village; the houses are almost completely encased in various shellfish, and a few of them he can't even tell what they were made of to begin with. The older merfolk that he can spot have dimmed and greyed tails, and their speed betrays their age.

"Sarenael Sarenael!" They both freeze when a small girl with long red hair and a deep green tail darts towards them, huge grin on her face. "I knew you'd come home! I told Papa you would come home soon, and you're here! Have you heard about what happened at the palace? Who's your friend? He looks mean…" She darts against Sarenael's side, peering out at Lucifer with big blue eyes.

Lucifer raises an eyebrow. "Kid?"

Sarenael shakes his head. "Little sister. Ariel, this is my good friend… uh… Luciel. Luciel, Ariel."

"Hi, Luciel! Any friend of big brother's is a friend of mine! Are you coming for dinner?" She looks excited, and tugs on Sarenael's hand to try and lead him home. Sarenael ignores Lucifer's raised eyebrow and pointed look.

"Sorry Ariel, Lucif-iel needs me to guide him somewhere very specific. I'll come for dinner after though, okay? I promise."

Ariel stares up at them with big blue eyes and a small little pout on her face. Luckily, she doesn't catch Sarenael's almost slip-up. "Promise?"

"Yeah, little sis. I wouldn't miss dinner with you and dad for all the gems in the seas. I just have to take Luciel somewhere, and then I'll be home right away. You run along and tell dad that I'll be home a little later," Sarenael reaches out to ruffle up his little sister's long red hair, and it's enough to put a smile back on her face.

"Okay, remember you promised!" She doesn't look back at them as she darts back into the village, disappearing between the buildings.

"Luciel? That's a girls name, dickwad," Lucifer growls, giving Sarenael's shoulder a rough shove. "That cost us even more time, take me to this hidden area."

Sarenael frowns and rubs his shoulder, before leading Lucifer around the edge of the village, just barely skirting it. The cliff front rises up above them ominously, and when Lucifer squints he can see many shallow caves and tunnels in the rock face. A flash of green draws his attention back to Sarenael, and he watches the younger male sweep sand away from a partially-buried tunnel entrance.

"Through here, come on."

It's a lot narrower than the other tunnel they had been in; Lucifer's glad that this is the final stretch, because the rocks and shells scraping against his tail are also scraping the blue paint off. There are multiple intersecting paths, but he follows his guide, not wanting to get lost and be trapped forever in the rock. The path they take is significantly vertical in some places. A few times they swim over bones, and it's an ominous sign. He wonders what the parents in the village tell their kids in order to keep them out of these tunnels, to prevent them from getting lost forever.

Unexpectedly, the tunnel that they're following ends. Lucifer has to blink a bit to adjust to the sudden sun in the water. They're in a large cove, with a rock wall separating them from the rest of the ocean; Lucifer can hear the waves beyond the rocks behind them. The beach is large and full of shells, and he can see thick forest beyond the beach. The water is deep enough and full of enough rocks that he can fashion a simple house, and there are fish and shellfish to eat. It's a safe place.

"Humans don't really know that this place exists, but if they do come, you can see them before they'll see you. They never go in the water very deep, and if you need to you can go back into the tunnel for safety. Your brothers won't find you here," Sarenael swims up closer to the surface and sighs, eyes closed and face tipped towards the sun. "It's my hidden place, and you'll be fine here."

Lucifer inspects his claws. "It's mostly safe. I mean, I can still see one major problem."

Sarenael turns to look at him. "Major problem, what's that?"

He gives the other an evil smile; all sharp teeth and narrowed eyes. "You know I'm here. What's stopping you from going to my brothers and telling them where to find me? There's no escape from here, this is a trap."

Lucifer doesn't give Sarenael a chance to reply; he lunges for the smaller male with his claws out. It takes the younger one to react, but then he darts away, trying to outspeed Lucifer. It doesn't work; Lucifer catches him by the tail and drags his claws down, shredding scale and flesh. He throws him into the rocks, not even flinching when Sarenael cracks his head against one.

Blurry-eyed and in pain, Sarenael inches towards the tunnel opening. The rough movements have kicked sand up, clouding the water with both sand and blood. Lucifer lunges again, but only manages to rip Sarenael's tailfin before the younger slips into the tunnel and out of sight.

"If you get out of there alive, you're sharkbait! It was nice knowing you, probably," Lucifer sneers, watching Sarenael's retreating form until he turns a corner. He turns his attention to the cove that's now his home and sighs.

It's going to be boring, but at least he can get some sun. 


End file.
